Pauline Kenney Kenney Rafferty

Pauline Hardin Kenney Rafferty, 94, passed away peacefully at her home in Dallas on Thursday, Apr. 7, 2011. She was born Nov. 24, 1916 in Oklahoma City to Paul Thomas. Kenney and Martha “Dottie” Hardin Kenney. Pauline was the oldest of three daughters.

There were many trials for the Kenney family. Paul, a railroad engineer, had ulcers for much of his life. The middle daughter, Josephine, was sickly as a child. The youngest, Aline, was a Down Syndrome child.

Then, in 1928, Dottie Hardin died at age 44 of complications of a miscarriage. A succession of housekeepers stole from the family and often neglected feeding Pauline, Josephine and Aline. The family lost their house in the Great Depression.

In her early teens, Pauline went to live with a family friend and young mother, Mamie Terrell. After graduating from John Carroll High School, Pauline borrowed $50 from Mamie’s brother to attend nursing school at St. Anthony’s Hospital, graduating in 1939 as a registered nurse. She lived with her father Paul and sister Aline at 801 NW Seventh, an apartment she had found. Her paychecks as a nurse were their main income.

Pauline met Paul G. Rafferty in 1939 – and wasn’t particularly impressed with the young OU grad and advertising man employed by the Daily Oklahoman. They encountered each other again at the Oklahoma-Northwestern football game in Evanston, Illinois that fall.

Pauline’s good friend Eizabeth Trosper (later Tennery) told Pauline at the football game, “There’s that Rafferty boy, I know him by his long eyelashes.” Pauline remembered Paul that day as unshaven and wearing an old Oklahoma sweatshirt. It was the day before his 25th birthday, Oct. 7, 1939. Nazi Germany had invaded Poland five weeks before, plunging the world into war. OU won the game, 24-0.

Paul invited Pauline’s group to go out on the town Saturday night in Chicago, and to Mass the next day, Sunday. She met the Rafferty family at Mass and was invited home for Sunday dinner. Pauline described it as group of very staid Raffertys.--and Paul possibly hung over.

After dating perhaps as long as three years, Paul and Pauline were married Dec. 30, 1942 at Our Lady’s Cathedral, Oklahoma City. Paul was on a three-day leave from the Navy after completing V-12 officers school at the University of Notre Dame. Father Connor was the priest at the wedding, with longtime friends Larry Link and Ruth Hennessey Link as attendants.

After the couple honeymooned briefly at Sulphur, Oklahoma, known for its mineral baths, Paul took a train to San Francisco to enter Navy engineering school at Cal Berkeley. Pauline followed him to California in January ’43. She was pregnant.

Pauline returned to Oklahoma City to have their first child, Paul Jr. and to work in a doctor’s office, saving all of Paul’s Navy pay in the war years. Paul commanded two different minesweepers in the Pacific, returning to Oklahoma City around Thanksgiving, 1945 after the surrender of Japan. Their funny and passionate love letters to each other during the war showed how much they loved each other.

After a year in Chicago in 1946, where son Jim was born, the Raffertys moved to Dallas in 1947. Paul worked for 20 years at Tracy-Locke, the Southwest’s largest ad agency. From 1949 until the mid-1970’s, Paul and Pauline sacrificed to give their five children 67 years of Catholic education. Don was born in 1948, Bill in 1956 and daughter Kay in 1957.

The Raffertys moved from the 2751 Avon St. home in Oak Cliff and St. Cecilia’s Parish in 1959 to St. Monica’s Parish and the 10424 Westlawn Drive home in North Dallas. Paul died September 30, 2005 at the age of 90. They were married 62 years.

A lifelong Catholic and woman of deep faith, Pauline loved to laugh and celebrate and was proud of her Irish heritage. She enjoyed reading, relaxing at the family’s home in Colorado, and bible studies with friends from church. As a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and mother-in-law, she was deeply devoted to her family. She joked with family, doctors and nurses throughout her last weeks.

Preceding her in death were her husband Paul, her parents, and sisters Josephine Weber and Aline Kenney. Survivors: Sons Paul Jr. and wife Karen of Richardson; Jim of Dallas; Don (whereabouts unknown); Bill and wife Sharon of Houston; daughter Kay Willingham of Maypearl; 11 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

Services: Visitation/Rosary: 6-8 p.m. Sunday, April 10, Calvary Hill Funeral Home, 3235 Lombardy Lane, Dallas. Funeral Mass: 11 a.m. Monday, April 11, St. Monica Catholic Church, 9933 Walnut Hill Lane, Dallas. Burial to follow at Calvary Hill Cemetery. Memorials: Catholic Charities of Dallas, 9461 LBJ Freeway, Suite 128, Dallas, 75243, or other charity of your choice.

Arrangements under the direction of Calvary Hill Funeral Home, Dallas, TX.